People spending less home than away - CSO

People are taking fewer domestic trips and spending less on them but spending more on foreign travel, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the CSO's Household Travel Survey, published this morning, spending on domestic travel was down by just over 5 per cent to €322.2m from the corresponding period in 2007.

Holiday expenditure remained almost unchanged at €214.4m. However, expenditure on business trips fell by just under 22 per cent to €35.7m, while spending in the Visiting Friends and Relatives category dropped by 20.6 per cent to €42m.

Irish residents spent a total of €1,799.2m on foreign travel in the 2008 second quarter, however - up just over 4 per cent from the corresponding period last year.

Expenditure on business trips abroad increased by just over 16 per cent to €238.7m, as did expenditure on the Visiting Friends and Relatives category, which was up by 25.6 per cent at €198.9m.

The number of domestic trips taken by Irish people fell by 5.8 per cent to 1,867,000 in the second quarter of this year from the same quarter in 2007. Total nights spent away dropped by almost 9 per cent, with those spent on business trips falling the most - by nearly 19 per cent from the second quarter last year.

The statistics reveal a different picture for the first half of 2008, however, the CSO noted.

During that period, domestic trips by Irish people grew by 4.4 per cent from the same period in 2007, although the rate of increase was about a third of what was achieved a year earlier.

Domestic expenditure for the first half of 2008 was down 3.5 per cent from 2007, and this contrasts sharply with the 24.4 per cent increase between the first half of 2006 and that of 2007.

In terms of foreign trips undertaken by Irish residents between April and June this year, these fell slightly to 2,060,000 from the quarter in 2007.

For the first six months of the year, however, foreign trips were up almost 6 per cent to 3,860,000 from 2007, with an increase of 8.5 per cent in the number of nights.